Prevalence of Needle Phobia Treatments for Participants with Neurodevelopmental Disorders

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fear of needles affects one in four adults and two in three children. However, for some individuals, including those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), needle phobia can present behavioral challenges that interfere with ongoing medical care. Although treatments for needle phobia have been widely evaluated in the literature, the overall patient characteristics and symptom severity of participants in these studies are unknown. The purpose of the present study was to systematically review the literature on treatments for needle phobia to determine if high-needs populations are being included in published studies. The literature review showed that participants with ASD, those with challenging behavior such as aggression, and those with a history of restraint make up a very small percentage of the participant pool. These results suggest that future research should be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of treatments for needle phobia in this underserved population.